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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

An amazing comic book artist has passed away. Man, this hit me like brick the other morning. Mike Wieringo (Fantastic Four, Flash, Spider-man) died of heart failure at his home. He was only 44 years old. He was apparently a vegetarian and exercised religiously, so it was a shock to say the least.

I never met him but he was always one of my favorite artists. I usually buy stuff based on artists and he (along with Darwyn Cooke, Bruce Timm and Mike Mignola) was one of those guys who stuff I always tried to buy. His art was so incredible and inspiring that I would study it with this strange mix of awe and frustration. Awe, because he made it look so easy and frustration, because I knew I could never be that good, no matter how much I tried.

He and I both posted work on the same artist message board, so I interacted with him there occasionally. But I only interacted with him one-on-one over a couple of emails when I had some questions about a collection of his book Tellos. I started the email with something like, “You don’t know me, my name is…” and he started his reply with something like, “Hey Cal, of course I know who you are : )” And from all accounts, that’s just the kind of guy he was. Friendly, engaging, always open to fans and supportive of other artists.

I wish I had gotten the chance to meet him in person. It had been my plan (once I finished the Spookytown graphic novel) to not only commission a sketch from him, but to see if he would read it and possibly give be a quote for the back cover.